Legends Of The White Mountains
by this-unfriended-stem
Summary: Arthur, The Knights, Merlin, and Camelot - everything is back to normal for the inhabitants of the castle. But far away, something is stirring in the dark. Post S04, canon pairings, NO SLASH. T for language. ON HIATUS.
1. Awakening

Merlin grinned as he crossed the wide square of Camelot. In fact, he was still grinning as he arrived at the stables he had been ordered to muck out. He ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his eyes, the smile still stuck widely on his face.

Although the Knight was not the only one to notice this, Gwaine was the only one to mention it. 'Merlin!' he greeted him. Percival steadied him as he swayed. 'You look happy for a man covered in horse shit!'

As he often was when not out on patrol, he was very slightly drunk. Merlin, not acknowledging his remark, simply grinned wider if that was possible, and told Percival to look after his friend.

'As I've been doing anything else since Arthur made him a knight.' he grumbled in return, then flashed a grin to show he wasn't serious. Elyan gave a rueful smile as he joined in. 'Although his knowledge of ales makes up for it in part, I suppose.'

Gwaine tried to punch him but instead fell flat on his face. 'Don't tell me I'm a bad influence…'

At this point, Sir Leon jabbed a right hook towards his stomach and Gwaine shut up.

Suddenly, something was wrong.

A moment before, Merlin had been laughing with the Knights, but then he was gasping as he felt something come in to contact with his stomach, his vision blurring and the breath punched out of him. Then, just for a moment, he felt something.

_He was old, unimaginably old. He'd seen the world start and he would see it end… _But no, he was Merlin, and the Knights were looking at him and saying something, their concerned faces merging in to each other.

'I'm fine.' he told them, his words breaking through the odd troposphere. 'I've got to be somewhere.'

* * *

Arthur sat at the head of his table, going through his papers and dining with Gwen, now and then ranting openly about his manservant's tardiness. Gwaine caught a small smile disappearing under her hand as she turned towards him and he realized that she was amused by Arthur's threats. At the same time however, she was trying to control it. There was no point in pushing the king to further annoyance.

Gwaine disagreed, but before he could start a rag his fun was spoilt - Arthur, apparently, had noticed it too. 'What's so funny?' he asked his queen, breaking off in midstream.

'Oh, nothing.' she told him with another little grin. 'I was just imagining what would happen if you could actually pin Merlin down.'

She was the master, Gwaine decided, when it came to annoying Arthur. It was a shame she was never inclined to do it - there was real potential in that smile.

'What do you mean, _if I could pin him down_. It's not my fault he doesn't turn up on time.'

It was time that he got involved, thought Gwaine, and leaving off sharpening his sword he turned to his king. 'I think she meant if you could catch him in a fight.' he told him nonchalantly. 'I mean, you might be a pretty good swordsman but you're not exactly fleet of foot.'

Arthur's face hardened as he turned to his knight and friend. 'You're talking about what happened at Jarl's castle again, aren't you?' It wasn't really a question. Gwaine shrugged.

'What do you mean _pretty good swordsman_?'

Luckily, Percival, Leon and Elyan broke up the would-be fight with their entrance. 'Have you seen Merlin?' the second of them asked as the others sat down. 'I think he may have stolen my horse.'

Arthur and Gwaine stopped their bickering and looked up at their friend.

* * *

Merlin rode non stop throughout the day.

It was angry.

And he didn't know what it was.

Great.

He'd been stupid, he knew that - he hadn't thought, taking Leon's horse, but it had been the first one he'd laid eyes on and in his immediate hurry and despair he'd acted blindly. He'd left a note for Gaius with a servant he knew as he'd left the city, but how was the old man going to explain his and the steed's absence for two whole days? Two days, soon to be three. He would have to make camp soon.

Well, there was no point in turning back now, he told himself steeling his resolve. Arthur might as well be furious over six days as over two.

The manservant pulled his thin clothes more tightly around him, put a log on the dwindling fire, and went to sleep.

* * *

The white mountains are made up of a confusing and truly stupendous number of peaks and crags, littered across the scape like a giant's playthings. No human creature ventures there but the mad, and the suicidally brave; and then the sheep, of course.

Who, if you think about it, are fairly insane themselves.

The only paths to tread are those few and precarious furrowed and etched by their cloven hooves, and the sudden morning mists might change to murkiest fog in the space of ten minutes: many people have fallen unsuspecting to their deaths, their last cries lost in the humid air, and their corpses absorbed by the grass and ground.

They become the mountain itself.

But something is changing in the depths of that world. The still valleys shift and lessen, where once the mutton grazed there are now only gaping chasms.

And the livestock that goes up the side of a particular peak never comes down again.

The farmers try to stop their cattle grazing higher than the foothills, parents forbid explorer games. But none of this will make any difference.

Because the mountain is waking up.


	2. Of Hats And Men Of Action

'I'll go.'

Gwaine had been listening to the Knights for at least half an hour. He was bored. And somehow out of his mind with worry.

Merlin had disappeared.

He had last been seen the day before, by the guards - this was normal, but on Leon's horse?

And for some reason, Merlin had lied.

George Derrick, an old and trustworthy guard respected by most of Camelot peasant and nobleman alike had recognized Leon's horse and inquired as to why he was taking it. Merlin had replied that he was on an errand.

Gaius said that a townsman had given him a note from Merlin saying that he was going to visit a friend.

Gwaine was, to say the least, a little annoyed that one of the best people he knew had disappeared in suspicious circumstances and they were standing in the physicians quarters and talking about it.

'How many times do I have to tell you? Merlin has simply gone to visit an old friend.' Gaius told them tiredly, his exasperation and annoyance leaking in to his tone. 'There is absolutely no reason to send _anyone _after him.'

'If he's just gone to visit someone then why has he stolen my horse?' demanded Leon doubtfully.

Gwaine stuck his head around the door in to his friend's room. Merlin's few belongings were strewn across the room, his clothes hung haphazardly in the cupboard.

Merlin obviously hadn't planned this. Gwaine's worry increased tenfold.

Contrary to what some of the court believed, the Knight wasn't stupid. He had frequently noticed his friend's odd disappearances, not only because Merlin was hardly ever even _in _the tavern.

Sir Gwaine opened his mouth, but he was interrupted - Percival was obviously thinking along the same lines.

'Could he have been kidnapped?' the big Knight asked his comrades, beginning to pace up and down the small room.

The King's face lost all good humour. He had only been standing listening to the conversation until this moment, but now he took his hand from his chin and the room fell silent.

'You say he was acting strangely earlier?' he asked the assembled company. Gwen nodded silently. She had been passing through when Merlin had had his strange turn.

Arthur thought for a moment more, but only a moment. 'We leave immediately. Ready the horses.'

Gwaine nodded and stood up, glad to be finally moving in to action.

Gaius, however, had had enough.

'Sire! Merlin has not been kidnapped because I saw him making leaving preparations myself! I may be old, but I'm not yet senile.'

The Knights stopped, Arthur looked curiously at the physician. There was a long pause.

'Very well, one more day.'

As the Knights left Gaius's chambers, Arthur pulled Gwaine and Percival aside. 'Go after him. I can't spare all of you and Gaius is lying.' Before either could voice their confusion, he continued. 'I know that he would never intentionally harm Merlin. But we also know that he has some sort of trust in this Dragoon. Let's just hope that it hasn't been betrayed.'

Gwaine and Percival nodded, their faces set. With a grateful smile, Arthur clapped them on the back, and the two went to ready the horses.

They would find and protect their friend, whatever was going on.

Merlin didn't like forests.

Or at least he did, but not this one. There was something about it that left a slow, uneasy feeling in his stomach and his mouth dry; something that was almost intangibly wrong about the place, as light as it was.

Maybe it was the silence.

Or the uneven ground… like it had once been farmed, only to fall in to disarray.

Or the tingling feeling in his chest - that felt so strangely like…

Magic.

The landscape was odd - sudden drops and sharp inclines that might go down a mile, then stop suddenly and lurch back up. Merlin was just struggling back up the side of a particular hill when a voice rang out, making him drop his pack and spooking his horse.

'That's his elbow.' said the voice, and after a few moments fruitless focal searching he had pinpointed it's source. A girl of about seventeen was sitting at the top, attired very oddly in a homespun but very complicated looking hat.

'What do you mean, elbow?' asked Merlin, curiously. He had met many strange people in his life, but few had ever greeted him with talk of bodily appendages.

'I meant that this is his elbow.' she explained impatiently.

'This? What is this?'

She looked surprised. 'This, where I'm sitting? It's mud, I suppose. And very muddy it is too.'

Merlin looked at her in consternation before deciding to continue on his way. As he passed her, he thought he heard a laugh.

'Keep to the fight, Emrys, or keep far away. It's never a good idea to get under someone's skin.'

He whirled around at her voice, but she was already gone.

Gaius re-read his ward's note for the hundredth time, faintly appalled by his untidily scrawled handwriting. Merlin didn't do things like this. He didn't ride off to face some magical creature with no idea of what to do when he got there. He didn't leave without at least an inkling of what he needed. As much as Gaius hated to admit it, Merlin wasn't a _completely _reckless man.

For a moment he wondered again if Merlin had left Camelot of his own volition. But no, that was ridiculous - after all, Gaius had seen him ride out of the Town Gates through the window himself. He turned the note over and noticed something scrawled on the back.

DON'T EVEN MENTION THE TAVERN.

Gaius smiled; it was Merlin all right. But what could be important enough to make him act so drastically?

**Hi everyone! First I'd like to say thank you for all the alerts and reviews, they mean a lot : )**

**Also, yes, I went there! An OC! I hate OCs! But, thankfully, this one is nothing like me (no self projection in to the story), and there will be NO OC-CANON PAIRINGS. No offence to you OC shippers, but I just don't really get it.**

**I'm not entirely happy with how this chapter turned out but I'm going to go ahead and post it for the sake of updating. Next one up soon!**


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